US Military War Against Black Women’s Hair
The military came under fire last year following complaints that their hair rules discriminated against women who wore twisted braids, cornrows and dreadlocks and that using words like “matted and unkempt” to describe them was frankly racist. After much protest from the Black service people and Black hair advocates, such terms have been removed from service grooming policies and the three branches of the U.S. military have also authorized additional hairstyles worn by Black women. Although Black women won the battle over their hair with the military, the fight still represents how Black soldiers still face the same ongoing racism and discrimination that exists in the broader American society.
‘Ban’ of White Supremacists in the US Army Ineffective
The Guardian article “The Modern US Army: Unfit for Service” discusses that in 1996 white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups were banned from the military “after the murder in 1995 of two African-Americans by a neo-Nazi paratrooper stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.” No one knows how many white supremacists have served since then, but a 2008 report commissioned by the Justice Department found 50 percent of all right-wing extremists in the United States had military experience.
In 2008, Matt Kennard, author of the Guardian article began interviewing Forrest Fogarty, a well-known white supremacist as well as a follower of Adolf Hitler, who served in Iraq as military police for one year. Fogarty said despite the “ban” of hate group members serving in the military in 1996, a year later he was still able to easily join the Army.
